Smile Empty Soul

Smile Empty Soul is a four-piece alternative rock/post-grunge music group from Santa Clarita, California.

Smile Empty Soul formed in 1999, while its original members were attending different high schools in the Santa Clarita area. The band, originally a three-piece group, consisted of vocalist and guitarist Sean Danielsen, bassist Ryan Martin and drummer Derek Gledhil.

After playing numerous hometown gigs, Smile Empty Soul ventured to the Sunset Strip, and later passed a demo to Todd Parker of the Los Angeles indie label, ThroBack Records. That later led to a record deal with Jason Flom's Lava Records – a subsidiary of Atlantic Records.

On May 27, 2003, the band released their self titled debut album Smile Empty Soul. The album was produced by John Lewis Parker, and three successful singles were released. In March of 2005, the album was certified gold with sales in excess of 500,000.

During the recording phase for their sophomore album, drummer Derek Gledhill was replaced by Dominic Weir.

On September 22, 2005, during a concert at The Beaumont Club in Kansas City, Missouri, frontman Sean Danielsen stated that their new album Anxiety, would not be released due to issues with Lava Records. The band told fans that in order to receive the new album they could purchase one of a very limited number of burned copies or attempt to download the album online via BitTorrent.

On July 13, 2006, Smile Empty Soul signed with independent label, Bieler Bros. Records. At this point, drummer Dominic Weir had been replaced by Jake Kilmer, and Mike Booth (ex-Cold) was added as a second guitarist.

On October 24, 2006, the band released Vultures, the official follow-up to their 2003 debut Smile Empty Soul. The album doesn't feature any songs from the unreleased Anxiety. The first single released was the song "The Hit".

Vultures debuted at #169 on the Billboard 200 album charts with just over 5,000 copies sold. The band embarked on a co-headlining tour with Evans Blue in support of the album in November of 2006. They are about to head out on tour with The Exies and Egypt Central.

As of December 13, 2006, Vultures had sold 13,130 copies in the United States.